Report: Samsung’s Next Galaxy to Have Fingerprint Sensor

Samsung Electronics is just days away from announcing the next generation of its best-selling flagship smartphone, which means that the steady whirring of rumor mill has risen to a healthy hum.

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Earlier this month, we took you through the highlights of the expectations and rumors swirling around the device. Some of the rumors then were almost certainly contradictory, unless you believe the new device could sport both an iris scanner and a fingerprint scanner.

But now, with less than a week to go, consensus seems to have congealed around a fingerprint scanner as the next smartphone’s most dazzling new feature.

Samsung declined to comment Wednesday.

In one widely-circulated report, SamMobile, which tracks Samsung’s myriad devices, cited “insiders” who say the Galaxy S5, set to be unveiled next Monday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, will include a fingerprint sensor in the device’s home button that does more than just unlock the phone.

Instead, SamMobile reports, the fingerprint will be woven deep into the phone’s operating system, making the fingerprint an integral part of accessing a number of features. In some cases, the fingerprint will act as a substitute for typing in usernames and passwords.

Unlike Apple 's high-end iPhone 5S, which allows users to unlock their devices by holding one’s finger steadily over the home button, Samsung’s version will work “in a swipe manner,” SamMobile says. This will require considerable dexterity from the user, the report says; the entire finger must be scanned each time in a fluid, moderately-paced, moisture-free swipe.

So where does all this leave the eye scanner? Last month, Bloomberg reported that Samsung was studying the possibility of including such an innovation in its Galaxy S5.

But now, Bloomberg is reporting only that the device will feature a larger, 5.2-inch screen with a sharper display, improved camera functions and better integration with Samsung’s smartwatch, with nary an update on the progress of Samsung’s eye-scan studies.

And, if all this speculation isn’t your game, the end is at hand. Samsung will lay the guessing game to rest next Monday evening.